A country girl goes to the big city where she faces the lures of glamor and temptation mingled with the wiles and snares of deceit. All this could become ruinous or could be overcome by hard work and attention to the values which motivate good choices.

Customer Service

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Delta Employee writes a story

Sue Meyers sent this writing to me. Sue is a flight attendant for American Airlines, and I thank you Sue for your willingness to share.

THIS IS A MUST READ – FROM
BEGINNING to END.....

IT WILL RENEW YOUR FAITH IN PEOPLE.

Flight on Delta from Frankfurt to
CA on 9/11 – written by one of the Flight Attendants...

-----------------------------------

Begin forwarded message:

A long
read but well worth it.

First
time I've read this and it's inspiring.

From
a retired Delta Employee. An interesting story about one flight
during September 11th.

Amazing
Story of Delta Flight 15 Written by a flight attendant.

On
the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of
Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic . All of a sudden the
curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to
see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had
that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed
me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and
simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are
closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport.
Advise

destination."

No
one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious
situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain
determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander
, New Foundland. He requested approval for a route change from the
Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately--no
questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no
hesitation in approving our request.

While
the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message
arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the
New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.

We
decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We
told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we
needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander , New Foundland to
have it checked out.

We
promised to give more information after landing in Gander . There was
much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty
minutes later, we landed in Gander . Local time at Gander was 12:30
PM! . . .. that's 11:00 AM EST.

There
were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the
world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S.

After
we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement:
"Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these
airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The
reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he went on
to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S.
There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed
passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put.

The
Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was
allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to
come near any of the aircrafts. Only airport police would come around
periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the
next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53
airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial
jets.

Meanwhile,
bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the
first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade
Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to
use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different
cell system in Canada . Some did get through, but were only able to
get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to
the U.S. were either blocked or jammed.

Sometime
in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center
buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a
crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically
exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly
calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded
aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this
predicament.

We
had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the
planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our
turn to deplane would be 11 am the next morning. Passengers were not
happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much
noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the
airplane.

Gander
had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory
servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no
medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who
was33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of
her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable
sleeping arrangements.

About
10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up.
We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went
through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red
Cross.

After
that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken
in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were
going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a
population of10,400 people and they had about 10,500
passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced
into Gander ! We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be
contacted when the U.S. airports opened again, but not to expect that
call for a while.

We
found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting
to our hotel and turning on the TV . . . 24 hours after it all
started.

Meanwhile,
we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander
were extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane
people." We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of
Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.

Two
days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander
airport. Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and
found out what they had been doing for the past two days. What we
found out was incredible.

Gander
and all the surrounding communities (within about a75
Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges,
and any other large gathering places. They converted all these
facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers. Some
had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.

ALL
high school students were required to volunteer their time to take
care of the "guests." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town
called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were
put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only
facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the
elderly passengers were taken to private homes.

Remember
that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right
across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a
dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the
crowd for the duration.

Phone
calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to
everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered
"Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the
lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local
bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was
prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were
driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals.
Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their
clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words,
every single need was met for those stranded travelers.

Passengers
were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were
told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the
airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or late.
The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of
each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on
and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything
beautifully. It was absolutely incredible

.

When
passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise.
Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their
stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight
back to Atlanta looked like a chartered party flight. The crew just
stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling. Passengers had totally
bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging
phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.

And
then a very unusual thing happened. One of our passengers approached
me and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We
never, ever allow that.. But this time was different. I said "of
course" and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and
reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last
few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at
the hands of total strangers. He continued by saying that he would
like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte.

He
said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA
15(our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to
provide college scholarships for the high school students of
Lewisporte. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow
travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the
amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more
than 14,000 dollars!

The
gentleman, a MD from Virginia , promised to match the donations and
to start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said
that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them
to donate as well.

I
just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right
now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a
far away place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in
on them. It reminds me how much good there is in the world.

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